Different Endings
by Keltena
Summary: Everyone wants a happy ending... but it doesn't always turn out to be with the person you'd expect. Done for 15 Pairings on LiveJournal.
1. Always

**Always**_  
theme - once upon a time_  
Pairing - Colette Brunel/Genis Sage

They were always together.

No matter what the situation, it was always the two of them. Two, and then one. One who was drifting off, making three into two.

Two is company, but three's a crowd.

They always had company, in each other.

Once upon a time, there was one. Then, soon enough, there were two. Two was company, and they kept each other company where before there had only been loneliness. They promised they would always be together... That no one could ever come between them.

Then, two became three, and the three were happy together. Three different young people, brought together by chance, inseparable... until they were separated.

For a time, one was gone, and there remained two... two who promised to always be by each other's side. Two who vowed that they would always have a best friend in each other.

Soon, the three were together once more, and the promises held tight over the months. And yet, as the months continued to go by, there was change. Outside factors did not damage their bonds, but new bonds formed, perhaps even taking precedence over old.

The two who would always be together were not, as one went his separate way.

The two who would always be best friends drifted apart, as one forged new bonds.

And yet, two remained to keep each other's company. They were the two who had not been together from the start, and the two who had never made a vow to each other... and yet, they were the two who had always remained most faithful to their bond. They were what remained of what had once been a threesome, a crowd.

As years passed by, the two did eventually make a vow. They vowed to be together, to keep each other's company, and to cherish their unshakable, tried and tested bond. They vowed to be together... for always.


	2. In Secret

**In Secret**  
_theme - "You've got two choices."_  
Pairing - Kratos Aurion/Martel Yggdrasill

He was a rational person, and so he didn't delude himself into thinking he had no choice. He did.

There was nothing forcing him to do what he did. Love is a truly irrational force, but not an uncontrollable one. The only reason for his actions was because they were what he, as a rational being, chose to do.

However, there were still times when he wondered why things had turned out this way, how he had ended up with these stolen moments and secret nighttime meetings as not only his most guilty moments but, in a strange way, some of his happiest ones.

It didn't make sense. It didn't make any sense at all that the times when he felt most truly at peace were the times when he was sneaking behind his best friend's back, risking the wrath of all the people closest to him. And yet, that's how things had turned out.

He tried to forget all that when they were together. It was easy to forget when he was holding her, when he could feel her breathing and all that mattered was the two of them. It was easy to dismiss all else in the world, to ignore the hurt they would cause their friends and each other if it came out and the guilt and betrayal they both felt already - him at his disloyalty to his friendship, her at her failure to keep the vows she had made. All of it almost, if not quite, disappeared when they were together. For those moments, all that mattered in the world was them and their love. It was easy to forget that theirs was not the only one.

But when they were alone during the day, and they came together only to talk, to ask each other what they were going to do about this, about everything... Those were the moments when he wanted to end it all, even to admit to what they had been doing and beg for forgiveness. He never did, though... and so their meetings continued: silent, loving, and emotionally painful.

He never told, and neither did she. Hundreds, then thousands of years passed, and he never told what had once existed between them. The affair had ended as it began: in secret.


	3. Worlds Apart

**Worlds Apart**  
_theme - separation anxiety  
_Pairing: Sheena Fujibayashi/Colette Brunel

There was a time, weeks ago but it seemed like years, when she'd been trying to kill her. And now she was risking her life and social status to save her.  
Funny, how fast relationships can change.

They were doing their all; they all were. Whether it was because she was dear to them, or because it would save their world, or simply because she was a cute girl... everyone wanted her saved. Most of all, no one, not a single person, wanted her to suffer any longer.

So why was it that every step she took - every step they all took to save her - wasn't fast enough? What had changed in those weeks that made it so hard for her to keep her head held high when she didn't have _her_ bright spirit and warm smile and cheerful voice to support her.

She'd thought the group needed someone like that, or else they'd fall apart. Now she realized the only one who had truly fallen apart was herself.

It was hard, harder than anything to stare into those vacant eyes and see only her own face reflected. She was almost desperate for something to happen - she'd tried talking to her, sitting near her, even silly things like casting 'spells'... Nothing worked. When her own voice trailed off, there was only ever silence as a reply.

It had been hard enough to come to a world she'd never known for the sole purpose of killing someone... and the indirect purpose of dooming the entire world. It was harder still when she got closer to her target than she'd ever meant to, and realized the truth: She was only a girl, just like herself. And the hardest thing she'd ever done, perhaps, was to trust in this near-stranger to do the right thing and save a world that should have meant nothing to her.

But she'd trusted. Something about the way she spoke, the way she nodded with nothing but pure determination... only the most cold-hearted of people could ignore that. And so she'd betrayed her people and her world to cling to a chance that lay with one person. And now, after what had happened to that person... what did that mean for her hope of a peaceful world, a world where nobody suffered?

And yet... somehow, that hope managed to endure. And every night, as she lay down to sleep in a room with her lifeless friend, she prayed for what she wanted the most: for both worlds to be saved, without a horrible cost.

So when those vacant red eyes finally turned blue again, even though she couldn't bring herself to speak, even though she knew the worlds were far from saved, that smile was hesitantly, she managed a smile back, even though she knew it wouldn't be seen. And when they went to bed that night, exhausted, she still didn't speak, only nodded when her friend said, It's great to be back.

Even though she knew the other girl had no idea what was going on inside her head, even though they were still worlds apart... For that night and days after, she was happy.


	4. Pretending

**Pretending**_  
theme – practice makes perfect  
_Pairing – Zelos Wilder/Colette Brunel

He never let anybody know how he really felt. She never let anyone know how much she was suffering. Even though he didn't realize it at first, she understood him immediately.

When he smiled at her, winked, and said, We Chosen gotta stick together!, she heard in his words something she'd always been too scared to say: _It's so lonely being the Chosen._ When they settled down for the night at his house, she was the only one who really noticed that, despite everything he pretended to be, he slept alone. And when he told her, casually as always, that she was brave, much braver than him, she started to realize how much he must hate himself.

Even if he didn't realize it, she knew he was slowly opening up, and she felt bad that he didn't trust her enough to open up to her. She knew how he must feel, knew that they had gone through practically the same thing, and she wished she knew him well enough to talk about it with him. But he always remained cheerful and casual, aloof in his own way, determined not to show anyone who he really was.

But despite that, when he called her over to him, away from the group, leading her into a trap... she couldn't bring herself to hate him. For her, hating was rare, but especially impossible in this case. How could she hate someone who she familiarized with so much... someone who might have been her had circumstances been different.

And that's why, right before she was taken away, she looked him in the eye and mouthed the words: I forgive you.

Even if he didn't know it himself, she knew he would do the right thing... whenever he wanted to stop pretending.


	5. Consider

**Consider**_  
theme - "Shut up and listen."_  
Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Zelos Wilder

He opened up. He said how he felt, and what he really thought, which was everything his friend had wanted.

So why was he somehow in even more trouble than before?

Hate to break it to you, but that's the way it is, he said. You wouldn't know, but not everyone grew up as happy as you, he said.

He would have kept talking if the younger swordsman hadn't hit him.

Shut up and listen, his friend replied, angry, really angry. Just because you haven't had a great life so far isn't any reason to give up on life itself! What about the rest of us? You've been with us this whole time; you can't give up on us now. We have a job to do; you can run away all you want after that's done.

That shouldn't have had the effect it did on him. Sure, he was self-centered – he'd always been. That was how you survived in this world... right?

So why did he feel well and truly chastised, like the kid was right or something?

Well, so maybe it wasn't enough to just open up. Maybe the next step was to change: to consider others instead of just himself. And so what? He could deal with that.

The first step, he thought, would be considering just what the teenager standing next to him really meant to him...


	6. Laughing

**Laughing**_  
theme – piggyback ride_  
Pairing – Colette Brunel/Presea Combatir

She used to give her sister piggyback rides.

They were awkward, because her sister was practically bigger than her. They were often difficult, because something would make one of them start giggling, and then that would set them both off, and balance would be a thing of the past. They were silly, and pointless, and a waste of time.

They were fun.

The two girls would make it across the yard, or halfway across, and then she would stumble under the weight or trip over a bump in the ground, and they would collapse, hearts beating fast, on the uncut grass.

It always took a moment before the two of them started laughing in unison.

It had never seemed like a particularly important memory. At least, not until she'd had time to miss her sister.

Being apart was only hard for a short period of time, before everything became numb. Being alive when her sister was dead... that was forever.

She hadn't even realized her sister had died.

Her body was the wrong age for her... or maybe her mind was the wrong age for her body. Maybe they were both fine, and something else entirely was wrong.

Maybe something was wrong with _her._

She hadn't even thought about her memories when she was approached by a happy, smiling teenager (older than her... or younger...?) who had put herself in the business of giving her smaller friends piggyback rides. She didn't think she had thought about them, until she thought about it all later.

It had been awkward for someone as small but strong as her to be carried. Awkward to let someone else hold her up, and awkward to be left only to hold on and peer down sideways at the happy face of the taller girl. It was awkward the way the steps bumped, and the touch of another person was unfamiliar after so many years.

The most awkward moment came after a stumble, a gasp, and then they were collapsed on the ground, tangled up with each other. Oops..., she heard, and then sheepish but cheerful laughter.

Smiles and a few strange looks were exchanged behind their backs. She didn't notice. She was smiling.


End file.
